


Two Halves of a Whole Robin

by danvssomethingorother



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Bruce is a good dad, Child Abuse, Dick and Jason are the same age, Hurt Dick Grayson, Hurt Jason Todd, Kidnapping, More tags to be added as story goes on, Protective Bruce Wayne, both Dick and Jason need all the hugs, both boys are robin at the same time, dick and Jason love each other and always will, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27840418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: Jason was a street kid convicted of stabbing his dad and Dick was an orphan, nothing in common besides the fact they were both tossed in Gotham Juvenile Detention Center.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 120
Kudos: 294





	1. Prolgue

Gotham didn’t like dealing with problems and abused children were problems, the fact was there were too many and too little places to shove them in. The foster care filled up fast due to the increasing arrest rates and death tolls from Gotham’s slums, Metropolis and Blüdhaven would only take so many transfers into their own cities over run foster systems.

Gotham had always had large prison facilities and the higher ups seemed to agree the kids would go from one system to the next soon enough so that left a lot of foster kids shoved into the Juvey centers.

Richard John Grayson was the newest candidate lucky enough to slip through the system and its endless loopholes like that. Jason Todd, the boy forced to share a room with him, did not fall into that category. Jason was here because justice wasn’t fair. His dad got off with warnings sending him and his ma to the emergency rooms, but Jason got a four-year sentence putting his old man in the ER.

What a sight they must have made in their cell, similar in unfortunate tragedy and let’s face most wouldn’t tell two black haired boys similar in height apart at first glance, but how they were holding up was a world of difference. 

Jason Peter Todd was resigned to his fate, it felt like the logical next chapter of his story. First Juvey, next life of crime and ending in death by police. Jason had heard many people tell him how his life was going to go, and he was resigned. Even his defense attorney in family court had said it, not caring his underage client was sitting in the room with his sobbing mother. He thought of her on moments like this, laying across his top bunk and counting the cracks. She had to be back to using, dad had to be out of the hospital by now and he wouldn’t be going back to either when he got out, he knew they gave up rights and his next step was foster care.

The boy curled in a tight ball under him didn’t give him much hope he would see the outside world even after his time was up.

Richard Grayson was an orphan and tossed in here just the same as Jason but without any of the mess of having to go through a trial. He hadn’t spoken since he was tossed in Jason’s cell, he stared at him with glassy eyes when Jason grunted hello to him and just curled on the bottom bunk without a word. Jason knew he was still crying; he caught the hiccuped gasps every now and then despite his best effort to keep quiet.

Jason didn’t get much an introduction beside Grayson’s case worker announcing to him the kid was his new roommate, his name and trying to inform the lump on the bed this is going to be temporary. The old and uptight woman didn’t say much after that, neither of the boys in the room were people to her just case files that needed to be organized properly in the system. Grayson would be forgotten in a week, didn’t matter he didn’t belong in here or get a trial before being tossed here, he was stuck here the same as Jason was.

That’s just how it was in Gotham.


	2. day one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and favorites! I hope you enjoy!

When Jason was five, his mother had just disappeared. His father stayed but a distance. He slept in the apartment but didn’t glance towards his son or made any effort to care for an anxiety filled boy who couldn’t find his mother. His brain hadn’t been able to grasp the fact she had been dropped him off at school one morning and hadn’t picked him up in the afternoon. She had just vanished in his mind.

One day then another and finally a third passed with no one there to take care of him. He didn’t go to school those days, he would have starved if he hadn’t got the courage to just take food from the pantry (living off four bags of Cheetos wasn’t exactly fun) and he would have been dead if he didn’t learn to stay hidden in the closet when dad stumbled in drunk with no mom there to take his anger off on.

On the fourth day, she had finally stumbled back home as if she had never left but Jason wasn’t stupid, he knew just by the way she kept glancing at the door she was just going to leave like that sometimes. He had to learn to take care of himself or just accept dying without a mom to keep him fed or there to protect him from dad’s anger.

Watching his room mate from the corner of his eye, he knew that boy hadn’t learned that lesson yet and if anyone wasn’t fit to be here, it was Richard Grayson.

He had yet to say a single word to anyone. He just walked in a daze the social workers gave them their new schedules the morning after the kid arrived and lucky for the new kid, he got the honor of following behind Jason to class, meals, rec and outside time. Both slotted in the same time slots for the many wonderful activities mini prison gave them. 

Jason wasn’t about to be blamed for the kid dying on him, so he kept an eye on him. He couldn’t bring himself to baby the kid. The kid didn’t eat a meal, he ignored it. He sat alone in the corner of the rec room and stayed off to the side out of sight outside, Jason didn’t attempt to give him company. The kid needed to take care of himself, Jason wouldn’t let anyone kill him, but Jason had learned to take care of himself and so was the kid.

The first day had been difficult.

Jason woke up when the alarm went off, the kid must have thought it was a fire alarm because he jumped and immediately turned terrified eyes up towards Jason.

“It’s the bell,” he said with a shrug hopping down from the top bunk and slipping his shoes on that he had tossed under the bed last night.

He sat on the bottom bunk as he completed his task and noticed the kid mimicked his action walking over to the personal cubby near the door his case worker had left his items in. The kid pulled out a similar uniform to Jason’s and a pair of plain white slip-ons everyone wore here. He stared at the GJDC plain grey uniform sitting folded in his lap solemnly. Jason didn’t know why he was surprised, the case worker had forced him into the jumpsuit before he was tossed in here, he didn’t know why he expected to get his nice cloths his mommy picked for him back.

“Our block doesn’t have showers till tomorrow, so count yourself lucky on that.”

By the look on the kid’s face, he didn’t count himself lucky. Taking a better look, Jason noticed there was something that looked sticky in his hair, gel maybe? He could tell by the way he scratched his arm in discomfort, he had some emotions he needed to wash away with the grime. He felt something akin to pity knowing the kid didn’t realize he wouldn’t have his normal privacy while bathing.

Jason supposed he would get used to bathing with a bunch of other guys eventually though. The center was underfunded, their block’s showers had been out for as long as Jason remembered, so it just meant older boys got first shower and if the guards felt like it, younger boys got bathed the next day.

“Just change your cloths if you want or don’t,” Jason shrugged at that. He didn’t always see the point in changing. The workers here weren’t always in a rush to give him replacements in his cubby, so might as well just wear down the cloths he had.

He went to his cubicle and pulled out his toothbrush and paste then turned to the small bathroom to the side of the cell. It wasn’t private and lacked a door, but Jason had always felt blessed it didn’t look like the cells on TV shows with just a toilet in the middle of the room. The cell was more akin to a medium sized bedroom without a closet and the bathroom didn’t get a door. It was nicer then where Jason came from though.

He shared a room with his mom in their apartment, she hadn’t slept with dad since he was conceived, he was sure. It was always piled with dirty laundry, beer bottles and Jason’s toys. The cell was cleaner, a cubicle system screwed to both sides of the front wall separated by the heavy steel door. His side held his cloths, borrowed books and schoolwork. He didn’t have personal belongings since it was prison. The cubicles on the other side hadn’t been occupied before the kid got here and it looked like they only gave him three sets of cloths and seemed to have forgot his toothbrush.

Jason couldn’t complain too much, the only thing he really hated was the lack of life due to the dull beige color everything was. Beige and grey, the only colors they got in baby prison.

Prison was like a three-star hotel, could be better but it wasn’t falling apart. Jason glanced at the large heavy door and sighed, well if it wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t leave and had little freewill it would be a vacation from his normal life.

They sat together on the bottom bunk, both quiet and ignoring each other’s presence while they waited for the guard to unlock their cell. Jason picked at his nails; the kid pulled his knees close to him curled tightly into his own anxieties. The cell was finally unlocked.

“Cafeteria is backed up today,” the guard announced head not rising from the clipboard he was frowning at, “You two head to class, your block will get breakfast after first period.”

Jason didn’t say anything, but he felt like cursing. This was the third time this happened, after Joker’s last stunt, thirty more older boys who had signed up to hench for him had been sentenced here. The older boys always came first and they always got the best shit. Jason had wanted French Toast Sticks but of course with the back up all the older boys would eat them. He had a sneer on his face as he hopped up and marched to the door, the kid his shadow behind him.

“Don’t be so down Todd,” the guard said with a sigh, “Warden promised to fix these problems, you just have to be patient.”

“I’m always patient,” Jason grumbled lining up on the wall with the rest of the block, “Not my fault this shit hole is overcrowded.”

The guard didn’t look up from his clipboard, he stood next to the other four guards without even a glance to Jason or the kid. After a few minutes he called everyone’s schedule for the day, they wouldn’t be getting breakfast until ten. Jason could already feel his stomach knotting, how was he supposed to get through class for four hours?! Forget all previous thoughts of this being better then home, at home he could get food whenever he wanted.

;

Mr. Scott hated his job and he wanted everyone in his classroom to know as much. His third-grade class of kids no one wanted only had one seat open in the front of the classroom and little Richard Grayson got the honor of sitting there. Jason took his normal spot in the back and pulled out his spiral notebook and began doodling right away to keep his eyes and mind of the shaking boy he shared a room with. He was getting pretty good at outlining Superman’s symbol, maybe if he mastered it he could find a beautiful career in bootleg super merch. The man downstairs used to do that, made decent money. The man knew everything about each hero and liked to tell Jason stories about all the times he spotted Batman, his love of Batman didn’t make the dark knight save his ass when he pissed off Two Face’s goon by cheating at cards.

“Another new boy,” Jason stopped doodling and set his eyes on the front of the class. Scott had finally got off his computer to take in the new boy in the class. The teacher’s thick glasses kept slipping from his small nose that never really seemed to fit his large round face as he dramatically slammed his hands against his desk and forced himself up.

“Just what I need,” he sneered as he walked slowly from his desk to the new kid’s. It was a short walk but Mr. Scott’s bum leg made it seem longer. He wasn’t that old, no more then forty with hair just beginning to grey, so his leg wasn’t due to age. Jason had heard someone had stabbed him here adding another reason to why he hated his job, but that happened before Jason’s time, so whether it was just a rumor or not was up in the air.

“What’s your name boy and what brought you here?”

The new kid didn’t look up to his teacher and Jason could see the low shake of his head, he either didn’t want to answer or didn’t know how. The kid hadn’t talked since he got here and Jason had been fine with that but Mr. Scott was not.

He grabbed the kid roughly under his chin and forced his head up to meet his eyes. Turning his head just right, Jason could see the kid’s terrified face reflecting in those thick glasses. A few boys snickered at the new kid’s treatment and a few like Jason just looked away. They weren’t here to torment anyone but they weren’t going to make their own lives hell sticking their necks out like that.

“Stop crying!” Scott yelled slamming his hand on the kid’s desk making the low gasp echo across the room that had gone quiet, “Answer the question!”

“Dick.”

Jason hissed low at the kid’s answer, not sure if he was insulting the man or not. Mr. Scott backhanded the kid at his answer making the kid topple to the floor, fully sobbing now but otherwise did nothing else.

“Another bratty street kid,” Mr. Scott sneered down at the crying boy, “Just what I need. Pick yourself up boy, no one is going to baby you here.”

The kid quietly picked himself from the floor and sat back at his desk, covering the large hand print with his small hand, his shaking growing harder. No one said anything as their teacher went back to his desk and opened something on his computer. Scott had a temper and no one else was willing to have it taken out on them.

“Richard Grayson, orphan,” Mr. Scott read from his computer, “Another no one. Aw. Your nickname is Dick? Don’t think I’ll apologize, its best you don’t use that language any further.”

Class went on as usual after that as if their teacher hadn’t just struck a traumatized kid and Jason felt that old anger, that anger that had dulled with time and normalization of Gotham life. He hated how people could just get away with doing shit like that to the Richard Graysons of the city and not even Batman wanted to do shit about it.

He forced his anger back as he began sketching Green Arrow’s symbol, going back to thinking of the bootleg business and holding onto a childish hope in Superman. It wasn’t his job to protect the Richard Graysons and he needed to look out for himself.

Day one went by without incident and ended with Jason lying in bed listening to Grayson cry all night again until he finally passed out. It was all going to go down hill from here and Jason could only hope the kid would stick up for himself more. To his dismay, the next day only proved he wasn’t about to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be afraid to comment! I love hearing people's opinions on my work! Thank you for reading so far!


	3. The Night the Graysons Fell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick's fragmented memory of the night it began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy! We will get back to Jason next chapter.

Snap.

The crowd screams.

Dick tries to catch his mother’s gaze as she falls, but only sees her hair and the fake dazzling blue hair extensions he had helped her put on just thirty minutes earlier.

He didn’t remember climbing down, he didn’t recall running out the back of the tent but he was trying to catch his breathe against one of the trees surrounding the field their tent was set up. He crept along the bark slowly as the screaming finally began to calm and the blare of sirens replaced it. He ducked behind tree after tree watching the blinding red and blue flash as he traveled away from the main road. Dick never wanted to confirm it for himself they were dead, he didn’t want to face that, instead he hid in the foliage of the trees. 

He didn’t go deep into the forest; he could still see the spot light and the faint blur of blue and red. He didn’t climb high into the tree just high enough for him to have a better view of his surroundings and for the think pine brush to cover him. He curled tight into himself as he heard stomping feet and the snaps of branches.

“Where the fuck did the brat go?”

He didn’t need to glance down to know Tony Zucco was below him. The man he had heard fighting with Haly was right beneath him looking for him, Dick felt himself shaking. He clamped his eyes shut and pulled his knees closer to himself.

“We can’t stick around, boss,” an unknown man panted, “Fucking Gordon is here. Wherever Gordon personally goes, the Bat is never far behind.”

“We ain’t finished until we get the boy, stupid!”

Dick held himself still, holding tight to his ears to drown out the loud smack and muffled thuds. Despite his efforts he still caught the sounds of pain and the begs for Zucco to stop from the stranger. The screams of the crowd as his parents hit the ground rung in his ears once more and he bit down on his lip to remain silent.

“Get yer fat ass up, Frank! Find that little bitch before Gordon or the fucking Bat does.”

“I don’t sees why we can’t just leave him for now, he ain’t going nowhere…”

Frank was earned another smack.

“If he falls into the system, we risk losing him and if we lose him? We just murdered two carnies for no damn reason, leaving a trail of evidence for the fucking Bat because Haly has a moral suddenly!”

If Dick were courageous, he would have jumped down and demanded to know what that meant but Dick wasn’t. He stayed where he was quivering in his tree until the two men ran off looking for him. He stared up at the waning moon, a sliver in the cloudy sky and considered his options. He was young but he wasn’t stupid, he was never going to leave Gotham. Whether that be because the police putting him in the system or Zucco grabbing him was up in the air.

He was never going to leave Gotham. That fact hurt almost as much as the loss of his parents, he was never going to fly again and the last crowd reaction he would ever hear would be those screams.

He let go of the final branch with shaking arms but as always, he landed flawlessly hunched on the ground. Out of habit he threw his arms up and tried to imagine applause but only heard the screaming. He pressed himself against the trunk of the tree, there was a soft crunch of dirt against heavy footwear. Whether it was the police or Zucco making his way around, it didn’t matter, it meant the same. He was never to fly again, and he was going to be grounded in Gotham. The town his family had always whispered among themselves about in dread. The city of nightmares, the city his father sometimes cried about late into the night when he was supposed to be asleep with his mother holding him tenderly.

He was trapped in this nightmare he couldn’t even comprehend alone.

If he were brave, he would run, he would leave this town and not turn back. He was not brave though; he was an eight-year-old who only knew vague threats from crooks who took his life from him and the fears his father held for this city. He didn’t know why his father hated the city but he did know about the legendary death tolls. He had heard one of the animal trainers sobbing a few months ago, she had been a Gotham native and had always looked forward to seeing her mother every fall when they returned here. Now she only held grief as they entered Gotham knowing someone had driven her mother to a madness that lead to her taking her own life. Dick wasn’t allowed to hear the details but he knew it was bad. His father had held the woman close and told her he understood losing loved ones to Gotham.

He had thought the footsteps had kept going, heard the crunch on heavy foot fall heading in the opposite direction. He slowly crept along the tree trunk and was proven wrong when he almost ran into a man bent down on the ground, using what look like a Q - tip against broken leaves. Both stared at each other with wide eyes a moment before the man straightened himself from the ground, quickly thrusting his Q - tip into a vial and into his pocket.

“I’m sorry if I frightened you,” the man began in a low voice glancing behind them, “I hadn’t expected to find you, the police were sure you would be at the campground.”

Dick stared cautiously down at the footprints left by Zucco and the other man then back up at the mountain of a man before him. Police maybe? No, that didn’t feel right, nor did it feel right assuming the man was just another civilian. If he had been one of the guests, why in the world was he out here?

The man must have understood his thoughts and what each careful stare meant, Dick was taking in his expensive suit and his eyes were stuck on the tools poking from his jacket. He had been taking samples from the ground like he had seen policemen do on TV.

Maybe he was with the police, Dick had heard his parents whisper how corrupt the police were, but he had never seen a detective in suits he had only seen stars wear in the past. The man dressed like the VIP guests for their shows, just as tall and bulky as the strong men he knew from the circus and was acting like he was an officer of the law. Dick nearly bolted but the man gently grasped his hand keeping him in place.

“There’s blood here, are you alright?” the man’s voice was gentle and despite how bizarre he was, Dick found himself relaxing.

“No, it was his,” he whispered towards his feet. He squinted hard at the ground towards the shuffled dirt the man was keeping them from disrupting further. He couldn’t make out any blood, but it suddenly made sense why the man had been taking samples from the ground.

“Do you know his name?”

Dick nodded but didn’t respond staring at the footprints that lead away from them. The man didn’t force him to say anything, just patiently held his hand. Dick found a lump forming his throat as he clung harder.

“Tony Zucco punched him, the man, Frank? he was mad that they didn’t finish the job.”

Each word became harder as he spoke and he clung tighter to the man’s hand, tears finally slipping out. He hated Tony Zucco more knowing he was going to be alone; he was never going to fly again and he was stuck in the city that made his father cry because he was too incompetent to do his job right. 

“Hey,” the man gently cupped his face and forced him to look into his eyes, “I promise that won’t happen.”

Dick said nothing, the tears wouldn’t stop now, he hiccuped and felt the man’s large, callused thumbs swiping his tears.

He didn’t recall the rest of the night; he cried a lot, but he knew the man didn’t let him go. He rode with him in one of the officer’s cars and he was talking solemnly to Commissioner Gordon. Dick caught his name was Bruce Wayne but that didn’t seem right. He vaguely knew that name and knew he wasn’t connected to the police and yet he seemed to be trying to egg answers about the case all in the guise of false grief. He spun a web of only wanting to take care of his parent’s funeral and taking in Dick if it was possible. 

“It’s a complicated matter, Mr. Wayne,” he recalled Gordon sighing as Wayne carried him inside the police department.

“I know you mean well and no doubt you can get him if you pressed hard enough in a court case, but we don’t know of any family or what his parents intentions were. All that needs to be discussed and approved by child services before he goes to anyone.”

Dick clung tight to Wayne until he was forced to let go when he was taken by another man, he knew he introduced himself, but Dick didn’t hear him over his own sobs. That was just the beginning of the hell he was about to enter. Dick wanted his anger at Zucco to be solely about him leaving him alone, but he felt the anger mainly went to the fact Zucco couldn’t even do his job right and left a Grayson alive at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the lovely comments and kudos! Never be afraid to comment, it helps motivate me to write <3


	4. To be Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick's first week.

The second day in GJDC began the same as the first, the bell chiming. Dick didn’t jump up this time, he stayed curled into himself fingers running across the bruise forming on the right half of his face. He found it impossible to move.

The day before had been quieter after it began being struck by his teacher, but it hadn’t been better. He had become a ghost in the rec room and recess; his lack of presence didn’t stop the whispers about him. Some mocking him and some speculating about him, his block didn’t believe he was an orphan and had to belong here. He had the look of a thief one boy had joked to his roommate and to his surprise his roommate had punched him. The boy had scampered away after that and hid amongst his peers gathered around the TV and stayed far away from the small nook Jason sat at. Dick would find he sat there everyday in the rec room, keeping to himself with his books or drawings.

Today his stomach tightening in knots at the very idea of getting out of his bed. He couldn’t face the teacher again; he couldn’t face that wreckage that had become his life. He tightened himself as he felt a tap on his back.

“Sorry,” he heard Jason say, “But you have to get up. You don’t want to give people reason to hurt you, being a problem is grounds for trouble, kid.”

He didn’t want to get up but knew he didn’t have much of a choice. He didn’t change his clothing. It was the same jumpsuit no matter, so why bother changing. He used the restroom when Jason grunted, he was done and plopped on his bunk to pull his shoes on. He still had no toothbrush in his cubicle, Dick wanted so desperately to care about the gross feeling on his skin and teeth after so long without cleaning but couldn’t. He might as well look as awful as he felt, it wasn’t like anyone cared.

He found himself averting his eyes from his reflection though, in his heart he knew seeing himself like he was would break him. Seeing the bruise, seeing the dirt and hardened gel still in his hair, it would confirm everything happening was real. He just couldn’t face that yet.

He closed his eyes while he washed his hands and kept his head down as he exited the restroom and sat beside Jason.

“Here,” he glanced up and a thin smile formed at the shoes Jason shook in front of his face, “The guards will be here soon.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, and Jason seemed surprised he said anything at all.

Jason just grunted at him and sighed laying back against the mattress.

“Shower day, don’t do anything stupid like yesterday, don’t make yerself noticed.”

Dick didn’t respond, just pulled his knees close to himself once more. He didn’t feel like he had done anything to bring attention to himself yesterday and still found himself struck. All he had done was answer the question: what his name was.

The guards opened the door and Jason hopped out the door, Dick trailed behind him quietly.

;

They lined up once more when the guard unlocked their room. Dick once more stayed close to Jason, watching him closely. He was leaning against the wall with his hands in pockets and staring up at the ceiling while the guards marked something on their clipboards. Dick took in his surroundings closer then he had the day before. Their block was C – 12. There were six cells in this block and it seemed two boys to each cell all young like Dick and Jason. Dick had never thought kids his age ended up in jail before today, he never expected to find 12 boys including himself stuck here. There were three guards mumbling among themselves and looking into each cell then at each boy lined up against the wall.

“Are we going to be fed today?” Jason grunted as the youngest guard looked into their cell, eying it over and marking his clipboard. The young black man smiled at Jason and just chuckled at his question.

“Yes, Todd, we aren’t gonna starve our boys today.” 

The oldest man, mid fifties maybe, a buzz cut and a large stomach also smiled over at Jason. After coming out of the cell next to theirs.

“You know how the older boys get, we don’t mean to starve our boys, Todd. A fight broke out and we didn’t want you boys getting hurt.”

Three boys across the hall from them also began to grumble, all three must have been brothers, they had the same red hair and green eyes. Dick’s eyes stayed on them, triplets, his dad had a twin sister. He had her picture on their fridge in the trailer and Dick felt his stomach tightening remembering the sad look his dad always gave the picture. He told Dick once they had lost his sister long ago, she had been taken by his great grandfather and he never saw her again. His dad didn’t talk much about his family, he now wished he had a sibling like the three boys across from him, then he wouldn’t have to be alone.

“What a good day it must be that the Thomsons grace us with clean cells,” the middle-aged guard chuckled, he had darker skin then the older man but not as dark as the youngest guard. Dick considered him being Romani like him since their skin was similar, but he doubted it.

“Do we have to shower today?” one of the triplets grumbled as a shorter boy with a buzz cut went to stand by them, he must have shared a cell with one of the triplets. He was pudgy and short; he had a hardened look about him none of the triplets had. They didn’t mind his presence and one triplet even leaned against his shoulder confirming he was their friend.

“You boys need it, don’t start complaining,” the oldest guard sighed pausing as his eye piece made a static noise, he pressed it down and made a grunt in reply before turning to the other guards.

“Block A-13 is going to share shower time with the boys.”

The guards frowned at that, but the older man just shook his head.

“There are extra guards there, we’re to drop the tadpoles off and head to Block A-5, the Zucco boy started another fight.”

Dick frowned at that, was his family here? He felt his heart rate pick up and took a large gulp of air to calm himself. He only felt Jason’s eyes on him as he attempted to calm down, no one else seemed to notice or care the smallest boy in C-12 was afraid.

;

Dick hovered by the wall of mirrors and sinks in the shower room, looking at himself for the first time since he had been orphaned. He could only see the large blue and black hand print covering the side of his face before he turned away leaning up against the yellowing sink and starred at the mist of hot water that drifted across the tiles. Jason hadn’t stayed with Dick like he had hoped he would, he had stripped his uniform off the same as the rest of the boys in his block and they all walked casually behind the large wall that blocked the showers from the changing area. Dick remained where he was, dressed and glancing down at the mess of uniforms on the ground. The guards had left them to their own devices, the ones from his block leaving immediately and the ones who had already been there had stayed outside.

Dick couldn’t bare the idea of being so bare in front of others, so he remained where he was. It wasn’t that he had never bathed in the presence of others, he had always found himself showering with one or both of his parents after shows or training, but that had been with his parents. There were strangers.

He picked at his nails, there was a thin layer of dirt under them, and thought of Bruce Wayne. He knew he would never see the man again; it was hopeful thinking on his part he would care enough to fight for him, but it was a pleasant thought. He hadn’t felt any comfort since the man’s huge arms holding him close.

He thought briefly of Tony Zucco and felt dread travel through him. He had to be looking for him and he dreaded ever running into the Zucco he had heard the guards briefly bring up. 

“So, the new Tadpole hasn’t taken to water.”

His head shot up as a group of older boys began to crowd around him, Dick attempted to look away seeing the three older boys were naked but the leader wouldn’t let him turn away. He grabbed him firmly under the chin and forced him to look into his hard green eyes. He had a smirk on his face, he ran a thumb over the large bruise on his face.

“Seems you are fitting in fine, little boy,” the leader snickered and his two goons snickered. All three were large with muscular builds and Dick may have not known what the dragon tattoos all three had on their arms meant but something told him they were gang tattoos.

All three boys had buzz cuts and pale skin still glistening with water from their shower. The leader tilted his head and made a small noise.

“Pretty for a tadpole, Marcus likes tadpoles, doesn’t he? Think that would pay my debt to him?”

Dick felt himself shaking as the older boy pressed him against the sink and unzipped his uniform. The older boy to the right eyed Dick and also hummed.

“Some guards like pretty tadpoles, you offer to cover for one and we could ask them to smuggle for us.”

Dick found himself shaking hard unable to fight back, as they forced his arms from the sleeves and eyed him. He felt an item for auction, the older boys were just collectors, deciding if he would join their collection. Before they had a chance to finish stripping him, he heard the door open and one of the guards call out for Block A-5. The older boys were annoyed but not deterred. They shrugged dropped Dick and quickly threw on their cloths, a few more older boys appeared from the shower area, got dressed and left as well.

Dick stayed where he was shaking on the ground, clinging tightly to his legs after he had quickly yanked his clothing back on.

Jason gave him an odd look when he came back from the shower area and pulled his jump suit back on but didn’t ask. He pulled Dick up and pulled him out with him when the guards called for their block. They had breakfast next but like the day before, Dick couldn’t find himself touching the food.

;

Dick kept his head down in class the next few days and found it was easy for the teacher to ignore him. He took his anger out on other boys the next few days, Dick felt he should be relieved but only found a sinking feeling watching him berate boys for having trouble reading. Why was this allowed?

Dick flinched hard as the man slammed his hand hard against his desk and glared towards the class.

“I don’t know why I even try; you are all nothing and you will never be anything.”

Dick stared down at his pencil and noticed when his teacher slammed his hand on his desk, he had trapped snapped it in half. It was a cheap green pencil, the boy next to him had handed it over the day before as the fourth day had come and yet Dick still hadn’t gotten the school supplies his counselor had promised. He glanced over at the blonde boy on his right who gave him a sympathetic look, he had a bad habit on chewing on his pencils and was doing so now while their teacher screamed at them instead of teaching. He plucked a blue pencil from inside his desk, his mom had given him it when she had visited, he remembered vaguely, and passed it to Dick. Dick gave the boy a smile as he took it and the smile was returned. Despite the jagged teeth marks across the blue wood, Dick was incredibly grateful he didn’t have to say a word to the other quiet boy in class and he would just share with him.

Dick felt his entire body tense as the teacher yanked the pencil from his hand and sent a glare in the blonde boy’s direction.

“You couldn’t wait until after class to share your garbage, Peter?”

Peter flushed deeply as the teacher turned away from Dick and turned his attention to him tossing the pencil back to the boy.

“Grayson hasn’t gotten his supplies yet,” Peter whispered squirming uncomfortably under the teacher’s glare, his eraser was in his mouth in moments. Dick felt nothing short of sympathy for the anxiety the boy was under, but the teacher felt none of that.

“And you just want to pass your germs around? I’m sure Grayson truly appreciated that.”

It wasn’t a question for Dick and Dick knew if he kept quiet he would eventually grow tired of verbally abusing Peter and move on to the history lesson. Dick didn’t know why he spoke up, he didn’t really know Peter. He sat next to him in class the same way he shared a room with Jason. Outside of those small interactions, he was alone the rest of the day. No one wanted anything to do with him.

He just couldn’t stomach the anxiety the poor boy was feeling, no one stood up for Dick when the teacher went off on him, no one helped him up when he was struck the first day. No one cared when the older boys harassed Dick in the shower. Still, he would never forgive himself if he just did nothing.

“Mr. Scott,” Dick spoke up with a shaky voice taking the teacher’s attention from Peter, “I do appreciate Peter lending me his pencil. You don’t need to be angered for me, sir.”

Mr. Scott seemed surprised Dick spoke at all and just stared at him a moment. Peter went back to chewing on his pencil, staring nervously. He heard someone behind him mumbled he was dead meat now and someone began to snicker, but it seemed to cut off halfway. Glancing back, he was surprised to see Jason’s fist hitting the boy next to him. The boy must have begun to laugh and maybe said something to Jason who didn’t share in the joke.

“What the fuck Todd?!”

The teacher’s attention was thrown off Dick entirely as he turned back towards Jason who punched the boy next to him again, harder after he threw his notebook towards him. The boy next to Jason jumped to his feet and attempted to strike him back but the teacher yelling his name stopped him in his tracks.

“Both of you! Warden’s office now!”

Dick caught Jason’s eyes as he casually walked past him, both of their eyes met, and Jason slipped him a note.

When the boys were gone and the teacher had turned back towards the black board to write out a historical timeline, Dick finally flipped the folder paper over to read what his roommate had wrote.

‘Stop drawing attention to yourself. Fuck Peter and all the Peters in the world, focus on you not getting killed.’

Dick folded the note back and stuck it in his pocket, he knew there was logic there, but he couldn’t. It just didn’t sit right with him to just let Peter and all the Peters in the world suffer just because no one wanted to help the one Richard John Grayson in the world.

;

The week ended on a gloomy Sunday. Dick woke with the bell and silently got ready. They didn’t have class today and the same as yesterday, it was visitation day. It was still down pouring outside, so he found himself in his block’s rec room the same as he had yesterday.

There were a few older boys in with them today, but they stayed to themselves surrounded around the television. All eight large boys sat on the comfortable chairs and large couch and sat passing a pack of cigarettes among themselves, the old block Tv was hung on the wall and had an old VCR / DVD player connected to it. The older boys chose a Kungfu movie and wouldn’t allow any of the younger boys to sit with them.

There were five (or maybe more Dick didn’t know about) rec rooms like this in the facility and the older boys always had control of them. The younger boys had to sit on the floor or one of the battered fold chairs at the fold tables to play games among themselves. Dick sat at Jason’s table. The other boy wasn’t paying him any mind, doodling in his notebook. Dick took a deep breath and attempted a conversation with the boy.

“I like your superman,” he whispered making Jason glance up from his drawing, “I used to enjoy hearing stories---”

“Stop,” Jason immediately cut the boy off, “I hate to tell you kid, we’re not friends. We’re just stuck together until one of us gets out of here. I’ll share my room with you and make sure you don’t die, but I don’t need friends and you should worry about yourself here. Don’t try to loan your heart to strangers.”

Dick shut up and glanced back down at his lap. He took a deep breath, he wanted to try anyway.

“I don’t think I ever really introduced myself,” he began voice shaking, he didn’t understand why it was so hard now. He used to be able to introduce himself easily to strangers, could have a conversation with anyone and share a hug with anyone who asked. He felt a strange anxiety he hadn’t felt before since that night, that night he was forced from Bruce Wayne. He hadn’t felt any sense of calm since that night.

“I’m---”

“Don’t,” Jason spat at him rising from his usual spot in the room. Dick attempted to say something else to the boy but didn’t get a chance as the other boy left the room, giving a glare to the guard on duty who glanced his way.

Dick sighed and drew his knees up to his chest and just stared off towards the group of older boys laughing among themselves. Burying his head into his knees he let a few tears fall, he had to resign to being alone eventually. He thought of Bruce Wayne. He thought of his parents. He thought of Tony Zucco. He thought of Jason and his how closed off he was.

He wished with all his heart he hadn’t survived that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the support! please comment!


	5. Intermission: Batman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman's investigation into the Grayson's deaths.

Nothing was adding up.

Batman stood in front of web of evidence he had pinned up and glared at the red string connecting them together. Logically, this case was solved. The evidence spoke for itself; it told a solid narrative. This wasn’t the work of a criminal mastermind; it was a cocky low life thug who bit off more then he could chew. Batman wasn’t satisfied with that though, there were pieces that didn’t fit right.

After Dick Grayson had been yanked from Bruce Wayne, Batman had returned shortly to the scene of the crime. Batman’s hard eyes briefly flashed to Bruce Wayne’s sympathetic ones staring at the lone picture of little eight-year-old Dick Grayson, he was smiling in the polaroid he had taken from his old trailer, it was pinned to the top of the board as a reminder of why he needed to be thorough with this case. Why he couldn’t fail either of the upcoming trials. Batman’s trial of putting Anthony Zucco away and Bruce Wayne’s custody hearing that was scheduled two weeks from now. 

Next the photos of the snapped rope, Zucco hadn’t been intelligent, there was damage and burn there. The thick metal pully connecting the ropes had been seared at the end proving without doubt it had been tampered with.

In the woods where he encountered Dick that night, he found the vial that had contained the Maroni family’s signature acid, the acid that had been splashed on Harvey Dent’s face two years prior. Zucco had left his fingerprints all over it.

The blood sample had belonged to his brother, Frank Zucco. They were two of five siblings, Anthony being the eldest. Their mother had been a Maroni, they pulled those strings to get into the business of transporting the trucks across county lines and getting a cut of the profit. Their business had been going bottoms up since Penguin had been taking territory that had once belonged to the Maroni family losing the Zuccos the easy cash they had once made.

Batman’s eyes travelled to the next thread of evidence, the business contract Zucco wanted Pop Haly to sign. The circus business was dying almost as quickly as the drug peddling business Zucco ran, the documents Batman had seized from Haly’s trailer proved that much, performers hadn’t been paid in over a month. They had been downsizing the animals, unable to keep them through legal reasons and cost alone of keeping animals alive. He was considering signing Zucco’s deal, there was an ink blot on the dotted line. Going to illegal means to keep the old show business dream alive.

The evidence became muddled after that, it would be cut and clean if it was just evidence of a deal gone bad, but then there what he found in The Graysons trailer.

He frowned at the plain tickets, three for Romania, one-way trip from Gotham. The trip was supposed to happen the morning after the performance. It seemed to be a last-minute idea from John Grayson, he found a small note in Pop Haly’s trailer, it was crumpled in the trash and he took it before Gordon noticed it. It was pinned in the center of the evidence, question marks around it.

‘I know it is my duty, my reason for breathing as a Gray Son, but please Pop, not Dickie. If you can not lose someone else to Gotham, I have no choice but to leave. I can’t lose another after Harriet. No matter my duty and blood.’ 

He didn’t know what being lost to Gotham meant, the only other place he had seen those words was on the back of an old black and white photo of two identical twins who looked strikingly like Dick Grayson. The twins were in identical circus outfits and smiling brightly, the girl had long hair in pig tails that bounced blurring them as she flung herself into her twin’s arms.

The back only had one sentence: ‘Harriet, beloved sister, lost to Gotham.’

“Still no connections, sir?”

Batman shook his head and turned away from the evidence allowing Bruce Wayne’s frustration to land on Alfred.

“Its there, the Graysons had to have been killed to keep them silent, but how Dick connects to all this and why Zucco was so determined to find him that night, is still a mystery.”

Alfred hummed setting his tray down on the counter and poured Bruce a cup of copy that was taken without complaint.

“I think that mystery can wait until we have the young boy before Zucco can get his hands on him.”

Bruce nodded and sighed allowing himself to collapse into the rolling chair in front of the computer. The trial was going to be here soon and he didn’t know what he needed to do to get custody from the state yet.

“Has Gerald called about who the courts are considering as a more stable guardian then me?”

“According to Mister Rodger, they have located John Grayson’s sister, that seems rather convenient in such short notice. The young man’s father and mother were not American citizens, both born in Romania.”

Bruce brought up Richard Grayson’s files once more and had been pleased to find out despite his parents not being born American citizens, Dick had been. He found himself frowning again, Richard John Grayson had been born in Gotham General. The circus did seem to visit Gotham often for an international show that was falling into debt.

“Even stranger, John Grayson seems convinced his sister is gone. She was brought up twice and the only photo of her is that one.”

Alfred frowned as well at the picture of the twins on the evidence board. Bruce began going through Gotham’s court documents and did find a Harriet Grayson. He glared at the image of a plump middle-aged white woman with bright red hair and then glanced at the photo of the Grayson family. John Grayson had a thin athlete’s build and dark skin like both his wife and son. He glanced at the black and white photo of Harriet, identical to her brother, the only difference being the long pig tails. 

There had to be a bigger picture somewhere here, something much bigger than Anthony Zucco and his drug cartel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the kind comments! please continue to comment! it helps me keep going !


	6. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason experiences nightmares.

“He ain’t even my kid! He’s your whore’s!”

Jason had his hands slapped against his ears, shaking hard as he listened to his parents argue. Dad was drunk again and mom was…mom was done with him and dad. He felt tears running down his cheeks, mom was leaving and she wasn’t taking him.

“You wanted a fucking kid and I went and got Jason! I give you everything you ungrateful waste of a human!”

He was hitting mom. The pounding of flesh against skin and mom crying. Jason felt a familiar anger rising, his teeth were grinding hard. What gave him the right to beat her? What gave him the right?!

He didn’t know when he had started it but he had taken a habit of keeping a kitchen knife tucked in the back of his belt. He just knew if he wasn’t cautious, dad was going to kill him. He touched the hilt hearing mom screaming louder, mom might not love him but he loved her. He should only think about Jason Todd, but damn it, he couldn’t let him kill her.

The screaming just became louder as he stepped out of his closet, his parents were gone and the only thing there was a mirror image of himself on top of a faceless figure. The faceless figure continued to scream in pain as Jason’s doppelganger beat it and laughed while doing so getting sick joy from hurting others. 

.

.

.

Jason bolted up and bit hard down on his lip to keep from making a sound. He felt his fists tightening beside him. He hated his dad, he hated his mom too, how dare they make him feel these things after they both left him.

“Are you okay?” 

He didn’t answer, didn’t even glance down at his roommate. He just tightened his fists and ground his teeth, pretending to not have heard the other boy. He should jut try to go back to sleep, they had gym tomorrow and that was never a good time for anyone involved. He rolled over continuing to ignore his roommate who gently put his hand on Jason’s shoulder.

“My tata…dad…used to tell me nightmares can’t hurt you.”

Jason snorted turning his head to give the boy a dirty look.

“You still believe that?”

Grayson said nothing removing his hand and slowly making his way back to his bunk. A lovely start to another lovely day in Gotham where nightmares were just premonitions of things to come.

;

“Don’t you eat?”

Jason hadn’t meant to snap at his roommate the way he did but the way he picked at his food was pissing him off. Grayson stared at him with his large eyes and twisted his scrambled egg on his fork. He stared down at the food as he nibbled on it. He always did this, took a few bites of breakfast, half of lunch, and it always depended on how the rest of the day went whether it was going to be half of dinner or just a few bites.

“You aren’t a bird; you are just going to collapse eatin’ like that and no one is gonna pick you up.”

Grayson shrugged his shoulders but forced himself to eat a few more bites then normal. He looked green around the ears. He glanced up at Jason with wide puppy dog eyes and Jason forced himself to look away; pretending not to be pleased the kid ate a piece of his toast.

;

Gym was more of ‘treat’ then a requirement for the schooling. Their coach came from one of the charity rings in Gotham, get the kids in Juvie away from drugs and into activities. Jason wasn’t interested in drugs nor was he particularly interested in going pro in any of the sports coach offered. Today they were being coached in basketball and teamwork, two things their coach didn’t know much about.

He was a washed out has been with Olympic dreams in Gymnastics, Jason had heard had grown up in this same Juvie. No room for orphans back then either, but back then they did have the equipment to give dreams to the no ones here. He had been transferred into a private Gotham school with a full scholarship. Lot of good that did.

It was another cloudy day, but the gymnasium was being used by the older boys because their basketball game was more important. Jason had heard a rumor the events hosted for the older boys were paid by the local mobs desperate for recruits and seeing how older boys being transferred before parole, Jason was going to guess that was true.

Jason glanced towards the two cell block guards watching over them gossiping to each other knowing the cell blocks with the younger boys weren’t about to cause riots. He stomped his feet angrily as a gust of wind hit him full force. The grey prison jumpsuit doing little to keep the cold away. 

Grayson gave him a look but at Jason’s glare, kept his apologies to himself. He curled his fingers under his armpits and stood straighter, looking off into the storm clouds. There was a glaze to his eyes that promised he would be lost there longer if Coach hadn’t called out his name.

“Grayson? The famed acrobats?!” 

The coach was staring wide eyed at his young assistant, giant smile showing off his smoker’s teeth. He glanced at disbelief at the clipboard then his scrawny red head assistance before settling large brown eyes on Grayson himself.

Grayson glanced towards Jason then towards the rest of their cell block, all who found their shoes more entertaining than Grayson’s distress.

“I don’t think I have heard of the Graysons, sir,” his assistance stated eying the new young boy.

“No, I don’t think you would,” their coach chuckled shaking his head, “The circus is a dying art and Haly’s circus is the last of its kind. It was born here in Gotham, wasn’t it, Grayson?”

Grayson shyly nodded but kept glancing around for any distraction to get the attention off of him.

“Pop says it started in Romania but didn’t change its name until it came to Gotham in the forties…”

Coach William nodded enthusiastically turning towards his assistant.

“Almost joined a few years back, oh what history and honor to join that circus but Pop turned me down. It would make sense, they are a family business, but it would have been nearly as great as joining the Olympics.”

“I don’t think it would be that great, sir, my cousin was telling me about how the Graysons died…I didn’t think I would be seeing their son here.”

The assistant had a suspicious look on his face as he eyed Grayson and Jason felt that familiar rage beginning to boil. He didn’t like their tones and didn’t like where any of this was going. He glanced up at Grayson who was hugging his arms tighter around himself and holding his head down in shame.

“A drug deal gone bad,” Coach sighed lacking any tact in front of the shacking boy involved in the crime, “Such a waste of talent. It feels like the end of an era, no places for aerialists now.”

“Maybe its for the best the last circus is being officially shut down, those places are abusive towards the animals anyway.”

“Now that isn’t true,” Coach scoffed turning back towards Grayson, “Ask Grayson, here, circuses are fine for the animals, aren’t they?”

Grayson opened his mouth to respond but only a broken sob came out, tears flowing freely.

“We don’t hurt them, we love them,” he whispered brokenly swiping in vain at his tears. 

“Not what the police are saying,” the assistant sighed, “One of the elephants died last night, they found drugs in its—”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Jason surprised himself with his outburst stopping the adults from gossiping among themselves in front of the crying child.

“Grayson is upset,” he snarled as coach looked to him guiltily scratching his fluffy blonde hair sighing.

“I’m sorry, Grayson,” the man mumbled glancing over at the sobbing boy, “Why don’t you take him back to your cell for a lie down, Todd? You can have the afternoon off.”

Jason grabbed Grayson by the hand and practically dragged the kid away from the basketball court. Gym always sucked and he should be glad he didn’t have to participate but listening to Grayson sob as the rain finally down poured wasn’t much better.

;

Grayson didn’t eat dinner that night, just stared at the soup and sandwich with disinterest and clouded eyes. Jason didn’t have much of an appetite either and only took a few bites.

;

Jason sank his knife into his dad’s midsection and pulled away a smile on his lips, glancing back down at the body that night he found his gym teacher Coach Williams lying motionless on the ground. He glanced over to where his mom always cowered away from him and found Grayson staring at him with that sad smile.

“Does it make you feel better to kill them?”

Jason felt tears running down his eyes but the smile didn’t falter. It did feel good to know he hurt people who didn’t give a shit enough not to hurt others. It felt damn good to finally do something about the Richard Graysons who never stopped crying.

.

.

.

Jason’s eyes flew open and his heart rate was pounding so hard it made his chest hurt. He tucked his head between his knees and took deep shallow breaths. He didn’t want to be his dad, god he didn’t want to be him, he didn’t want to find joy from hurting people.

Nani, nani, puiul mamii,  
Nani, nani, puiul mamii,  
Puişorul mamii mic,  
Facete-ai, maică, voinic.

Nani, nani, puiul mamii,  
Nani, nani, puiul mamii,  
Frumuşel şi voinicel,  
Mândru ca un stejerel.

Jason felt his heart rate slowing at the low voice under him. It took him a minute to realize it was Grayson, he was singing. He pulled himself up and climbed down from his bunk. In the darkness he could see Grayson with his own knees pulled to himself and softly singing the foreign lullaby to himself. 

He noticed Jason standing there looking at him and stopped, absently scratching at his arm.

“My mom used to sing to me when I was upset, it’s the song her mother sang to her too.”

Jason sat next to the other boy and rested his head against the wall behind them and stretched his feet out.

“Does it make you feel any better now?”

Grayson said nothing and shook his head offering Jason some of his blanket which he took. Neither slept that night, just sitting in the empty silence and wishing for a distraction that wasn’t going to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments help me update faster 💕


	7. Mystery

It was a week and three days into his stay in Juvie when Dick’s social worker finally made her presence again. He had been sitting through class one minute, trying his best to keep up with Mr. Scott’s notes on world history; the next he was being escorted to the front office by one of the guards.

The guard rested his hand on his shoulder in what was supposed to be comforting he supposed as he escorted him but none of the other guards had touched him. He kept his eyes down, trying to ignore the strange look in the man’s eyes. He remembered what the older boy had told him about some of the guards in the shower room and felt anxiety simmering deep in his gut. It burned his chest like boiling water and made him feel nauseous.

They entered a large hallway in front of a large steal door with a plague that read ‘main office’. Dick jumped feeling the guard’s hand settle on his thigh and he turned accusatory eyes up at him.

“Mandatory pat down, sorry pal,” Dick knew he wasn’t sorry as his hands groped his thighs and trailed down, holding on much longer then necessary.

Dick felt like crying as the man returned his hand to his shoulder and he hated how intimate the touch was as if they knew each other. He was pushed into an open space lined with receptionist desks and office walls barely giving each woman privacy as they did their paperwork and argued on their phones. They walked towards the back on the left side of the large open room, a woman in her mid-thirties with a messy brown bun and well worn but well pressed pink pant suit. The plague on her desk said ‘Mary Edwards’ and she gave him a large smile as she caught him reading it over her laptop she had been tapping away at.

“Ah Richard,” she greeted nodding her head to the two open chairs for the guard and Dick to sit at, “I’m so sorry its taken so long to get back to your case, but we are making progress on where to put you!”

Dick didn’t respond right away not sure what he should say. If he stated his frustration at being tossed in jail, he would be ignored anyway. So instead he mustered his best smile and pretended this was a member of the press asking about his performance, he was happy as far as she would know and didn’t feel dread every moment he continued to live as the sole survivor.

“It’s ok,” he said quietly with his dead smile. It wasn’t ok. Nothing was ok.

“I’m afraid you will have to stay here a bit longer, but we are starting a case with your aunt to get you into her custody as soon as possible.”

“My aunt?” he didn’t mean to frown or for his question to be as angry as it came out, but he didn’t have any aunts. His mother was an only child and his father had lost his only sister long before he was a thought.

“Harriet Grayson, dear,” Mary answered with a nod and a smile ignoring the shift in his tone, “She had a falling out with your father, its no surprise you don’t know her, but according to records she is your relation by blood.”

“What about Mr. Wayne?”

“I’m afraid that’s what’s dragging the case,” the woman sighed, “He seems persistent to get your custody and well a man of his wealth has excellent lawyers who are dragging your poor aunt through an unnecessary court case.” 

It wasn’t a long talk with his case worker, Mr. Scott was barely done with history when he was returned to class. The only thing he was given from the meeting was the supplies he had needed over a weak ago and a change of jump suit of his own that wasn’t borrowed from Jason. Dick felt uneasy through the rest of the class and found himself restless.

;

It was pouring down raining and outside activities had been cancelled. His grade usually went outside for an hour after lunch but that was not possible today. There was a flood warning Mr. Scott had complained when he was supposed go over the multiplication tables with them. When the bell sounded for lunch, he sat silently by Jason and Jason didn’t ask where he had gone to earlier in the day. He noticed his new bag and supplies the guard had when they came back to the class and concluded the situation himself.

“Jason?”

Jason grunted towards him shoving another chicken nugget in his mouth and Dick just sighed unable to do much more then stare at his food.

“Are we allowed to go to a library here?”

Jason just nodded and glared at Dick’s lunch, he wasn’t going to say anything else unless he took another bite and Dick smiled taking a meek bite. Jason cared about him in his own Jason Todd way, Dick knew it. Something had happened to Jason like something had happened to Dick and this is just his way of friendship.

Dick couldn’t stomach the fries, they were limp and drenched in grease, but he got down five nuggets which seemed to please Jason. Without words, Dick passed the remainder of his food to Jason who took it without complaint and ate it all. Dick was afraid to ask why he always did that, it was a strange habit, Jason didn’t seem to do it out of hunger. His face was scrunched as he forced the food in his mouth indicating he was full and didn’t want more, but he wasn’t about to let the food be tossed out.

Jason hardly answered with words, as soon as the guards announced they were to leave the cafeteria and begin free roam, Jason took him straight to the library. It was one hallway turn from their normal rec room and Dick was glad it wasn’t too hard to get around the complex. The younger kids all stayed on the lower level, they were warned against going upstairs by the guards by each stairway, that was where the older boys’ cells and classes were. It wasn’t a good idea to be caught by one of the older hardened boys and Dick did feel some relief in seeing the guards cared enough to keep them separated even in a very lax way. 

The library had a large steal locked door and a guard leaning lazily against on the brick wall near it. The guard was young and smiled at the boys as they approached. It was degrading in Dick’s opinion when the man who couldn’t be more then 5’5 squatted down to their level with a large smile one would give toddlers, not grade schoolboys locked in Juvie.

“Hiya boys,” he said in a tone that made Jason visibly bristle and narrow his eyes, but Dick was a showman and could smile despite being talked down to.

“Hello,” Dick responded like the young innocent boy he knew the man thought he was, it was best not to get on his bad side. He wanted access to this area, no, he needed access to this area and would be willing to act however he needed to get in there.

“Our teacher wants a book report from us, and we want to maybe find a book?”

This wasn’t technically a lie, Mr. Scott did tell them he should assign a report for them, but he never specified if he would or not since he was interrupted by one of the boys in the back accidentally hitting him with a wad of paper likely meant for Peter who seemed a normal target for bullying. Mr. Scott had spent the remainder of the class screaming at them and instead assigned them to write a report about how to respect authority.

The guard smiled and unlocked the large steal doors for them before ushering them in. Dick was surprised Jason wanted to come with him. He had expected him to want to leave after showing him here, but he had stayed with him the entire time, Dick couldn’t help the soft smile.

The library wasn’t anything special. A rather large room with plenty of bookshelves but not as many books. Dick had to wonder if it was from lack of funding or if it was from lack of care for the books they had once had, but only a third of the shelves were full of books while the rest only had barely a shelf worth or none. Several tables littered around the room; a few older boys were sitting at the tables. None of them even lifted their head to the younger boys entering, all of them focused on schoolwork.

At the back of the room was the librarian’s station, she was sitting behind what looked to be bullet proof glass. 

“Not sure what you want here, but nothing is a worth a damn here.” 

Dick took a glance towards the librarian and to the left of her found what he was looking for, a few tables lined on the wall with computers that looked older than Dick was. He walked over to them and Jason followed wordlessly.

He booted up the computer, it took longer than he would have liked to load the home screen. He took a deep breath and popped each finger attempting to stay patient.

Jason had taken his notebook out of his knapsack and was already sketching, not paying attention to his roommate’s frustration. Dick watched him from the corner of his eyes sketching what looked like a cat.

“Jason?”

Jason grunted at him.

“You don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to.” 

Jason paused a moment to shrug before sketching the outline of the cat’s ear.

“I’m bored and want to see what you could possibly want from here.”

Dick didn’t want to chance making Jason angry, he didn’t feel it was appropriate giving a title to whatever relationship they had. Maybe Jason just pitied him and didn’t want blood on his hands or maybe he just didn’t know how to make friends, it was just one of the greater mysteries in life.

Once the computer finally loaded, he immediately went to the internet. He was sure they were heavily monitored but checking out news reports couldn’t exactly be against the rules, right?

He immediately typed in ‘flying Graysons’ into the search engine as soon as the internet finished loading and dozens of News articles popped up. From the corner of his eye he noticed Jason taking his attention from his drawing and staring at his screen as he clicked the first link from the Gotham Gazette.

Its date was two days ago, an update on the police investigation. It was written by Vikki Vale according to the blurb under the article. Dick didn’t know or particularly care who that was so he continued to scroll past the name and ignored the link to her bio.

He skimmed his eyes over the brief synopsis of the crime and what had happened, he closed his eyes momentarily hearing the scream of the crowds and the snap in his head. He forced himself to count slowly backwards from ten then forcing himself to count backwards from thirty then forty to get his heart rate under control, he couldn’t blank out. He needed to know what was going on.

He felt Jason’s eyes on him and when he opened them, he saw him reading Vikki’s accounts of the night. Despite stating she had been in attendance the night it happened, her words remained impassive and neutral. This would never affect her as it was affecting Dick Grayson.

He glanced at Jason who wasn’t pretending he didn’t care anymore. He looked disgusted as he skimmed over the words again, a frown on his face seeing the police had a suspect and evidence but Tony was still a free man. Dick hoped that’s why he was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth in anger anyway, he hoped he didn’t think Dick was a coward.

He stared at Jason a moment who grunted as if giving him permission to keep scrolling and he did so.

“Police believe the circus’s owner, Cristian Haly, is suspected of illegal drug trades with the Maroni family (who are still under inspection for their involvement with The Calendar Murders). There was heroin found in the pens of the animals. One of the circus’s elephants, Elanor, had trace amounts of heroin in her system. It is unknown if she was used for hiding substances or if she had consumed them in Haly’s rush to get rid of the evidence. Elanor is alive and in the care of Gotham Animal Sanctuary (the words were blue and led to link about the sanctuary, Dick didn’t click it). “ 

“Bunch of shit the police are spreading to keep the masses calm.”

Dick jumped at the new voice and noticed Jason’s eyes narrowing at the older boy who sat in the empty seat on the other side of Dick. He was a lanky boy, easily towering over the two boys even seated like he was. Spiky brown hair and a dragon tattoo wrapping around his neck, it didn’t look finished, lines and detail weren’t complete and no color. He wasn’t looking directly at the boys, picking at his nails.

“My uncle is a piece of shit, but this is too big to be him. He’s always been too much of a coward for murder before, all he ever did was drive the trucks. Something bigger is going on here and you know it too, don’t ya circus boy?”

Dick didn’t say anything staring at the screen, focusing on the image of Pop being arrested. He thought of what had been bothering him, the woman, his supposed aunt. The coach telling him about the drugs in one of their elephants. It didn’t make sense to Dick; it made his stomach churn in fear. There had been a small voice in his head telling him nothing made sense since he had been ripped from Wayne that night and it was becoming louder with each day.

“Go away Zucco,” Jason sneered at the older boy who just gave him a smile.

“Hiya Todd, haven’t seen ya since the day he headbutted Zack for even implying he might sell ya to the guards.”

Dick felt his stomach sinking faster turning terrified eyes to Jason, but Jason shook his head and tightened his fists as he got up, full on glaring at Zucco.

“Yeah, I proved I’m not an easy tad pole to mess with and I don’t mess with assholes like you.”

He grabbed Dick by the hand and yanked him hard behind him, making Dick stumble a little as he followed behind him. He heard Zucco chuckling behind them, making no effort to follow the boys. He felt a tremor travel down his spine hearing Zucco call after them.

“If I was you, I would try to leave circus boy, this shit is bigger than my worthless family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments help me update faster 💖


	8. Intermission: All the hanging threads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The clues are stacking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was insanely hard to write for more...I hope it turned out good...

Anthony Zucco had always had luck on his side. The family he had been born into, the people who walked into his life and the jobs they handed him were from luck and luck alone. He was fine with that, really, he was and had always been until it suddenly ran out.

“Tony,” he glared at Frank, but Frank kept talking anyway, “Tony, Mr. Cobb ‘as been looking for ya.” 

Tony didn’t rise from his desk, just kept his head resting on his clasped hands. He was still so desperately trying to find a way to squirm his way out of this, but he got in too deep this time. This wasn’t pissing off his own family who respected his mother’s memory too much to throw him in a trash compactor, this was playing with fire. He made a deal with the devil hoping for riches and wasn’t going to find that.

“Tony…”

His younger brother as desperate, he wanted his older brother’s guidance, sought it out like he had been doing since they were kids. Tony snarled picking up his empty glass and smashing it into the back wall making his sister’s cat screech loudly from the next room.

“Tony what the hell ya doing in there!”

Tony ignored his baby sister, smashing another glass against the wall. They were all done for if they didn’t find the brat soon.

On his desk was this morning’s paper, another death from Haly’s Circus. Haly himself had been burned alive and the entire damn circus burned with him. Every member was dead and the Zuccos were next.

;

Two days before Tony found the news of Pop Haly’s death, Haly had been begging Officer Gordon to not let him go. He was begging to stay in his cell for one more night, just one more.

Harvey Bullock had been on his last cigarette and Gordon had been desperate to snatch it from his hand and take in a deep inhale. He needed something to calm his nerves, nothing was making sense. Criminals didn’t often beg to locked up.

“Let me get this straight,” Harvey began voice scratching from lack of sleep and grading Gordon’s final nerve, “Ya claimed ya had nothing to do with the Graysons murder just two hours ago and were demanding release all damn day but now ya are the mastermind?”

“Yes,” the ring master stated taking hesitant glances around, “I killed Mary and John because of the drugs just like you said. They didn’t agree with being involved and didn’t want their son involved. I wanted to silence them. Everything you said, it was true. Do not let me back on the streets.”

Bullock and Gordon shared a look, it would be too easy to just write up a confession and end everything here, but neither felt the need to. Bullock rose and left while Gordon followed.

“Do ya buy that confession?” 

Bullock tilted his head towards him, and Gordon didn’t answer right away. He watched as Bullock fumbled with the foam cups, making a cup of coffee and decided he needed to get out of here.

“No,” Gordon answered with a firm shake of his head.

He knew he vowed to quit, promised not only his wife but daughter as well. He headed up to the roof and headed for his normal spot behind the bat signal. He smirked seeing no one had moved them, his last pack of Slims. His brand and not Bullock’s cheaper stuff. Lighting it up and taking in the first breath was like greeting an old friend. Familiar and soothing and just what you need after three long nights.

“I thought you were trying to quit.”

Gordon hated how that man could still make him jump, five years dealing with him emerging and disappearing into the shadows and he still fell for it every time.

“Trying,” Gordon grumbled hating the thought of wasting this one moment of calm but hating the idea more of someone watching him indulge. He dropped the wasted cigarette on the ground and stomped it under his foot turning towards Batman. 

“Haly is confessing full responsibility of the crime,” Gordon informed him.

“But you have your doubts.”

Gordon snorted, if Batman didn’t agree with that gut feeling he wouldn’t be here at all. He stared up at the sky, the moon peaking through the pollution and if he squinted hard enough he could make out a speckle of stars. He had no idea why he stayed in this city, the country life would be calmer on his nerves and there wouldn’t be any pollution.

“I would suggest not letting him go,” Batman told him but didn’t elaborate further as he was known to do. He handed over a thick manila folder to him and he raised his eyebrow seeing Richard Grayson’s smiling polaroid paperclipped to the first page.

“What’s Grayson’s child protection papers have to do with Haly?”

Gordon could vaguely see a connection, but it was surface level. The two knew each other and of course the boy was involved in the case, but his custody wasn’t Gordon’s concern. He flipped the page and saw an unknown child. She was about the same age as Grayson and had the same lovely blue eyes but Jim wasn’t seeing the connection on. He read a little further, her name was Harriet Grayson and she was Richard’s aunt on his father’s side, the only known family.

“This is a missing person report,” he said slowly reading through the fading and damaged police report attached.

“It was filed twenty years ago by the girl’s grandmother on her mother’s side and a month later, the grandmother was announced dead and court documents appeared for an adoption of Harriet.”

Gordon’s eyes widened seeing the crime scene photos, the old woman was turned into a pincushion by throwing knives.

“Richard’s grandmother on his father’s side would pull suicide the following year by jumping from the original Wayne Tower.”

He flipped the page finding another police report, this one taped back together it seemed.

“Where did you find this?” he whispered leaning against the bat signal.

“It belonged to Haly,” he responded, “It was in a lock box with a note in Haly’s handwriting that said ‘Remember what happens to those who don’t obey’.”

Flipping the page, he found several articles about police murders who Gordon had to assume had been connected to the Grayson cases in the past. He slumped to the ground, he hadn’t noticed this lock box when he had examined Haly’s trailer himself, he opened his mouth to ask. 

“It wasn’t in his trailer, it was in the Grayson trailer, hidden inside the mattress.”

Gordon didn’t say anything flipping through evidence Wayne’s PI and lawyer had dug up about the forgery ‘Harriet Grayson’ had committed and the proof of it.

“It goes deeper then the Zuccos or even just Haly,” Batman concluded for him as he raised his head, “They were puppets to whoever is behind this.”

“Any idea of who the puppet master is?”

Batman didn’t say anything to that, disappearing like he was known to do. He didn’t have an answer yet it seemed but knowing him he would. It was Jim’s job to help keep it all legal and build the case. He rose from his spot on the ground and made his way back down stairs.

He was greeted to a scene of chaos. Every officer was down, slumped over their desks, collapsed on the floor or in the case of Bullock, half standing and half fallen over as his hand grasped tight against the pay phone. Gordon rushed to him hearing him and blink groggily towards him.

“Harvey,” he cried grabbing onto him and assisting him to sit properly on the ground, using the wall for support, “What happened.”

“Saw some freak in a costume, went for my gun and he dropped a smoke bomb,” he coughed loudly, “Attempted to call ambulance…officers started collapsing before they knew…wha…hit em…”

He was gagging and gasping for each word, Gordon pulled out his phone and made a quick call for medical back up before sprinting to check on others. To his shock, there was barely sign of the chemical break but he covered his mouth and nose with his jacket just in case running to the holding cells.

Everyone seemed accounted for there from just a quick glance but Pop Haly was no longer in the interview room he had been left in, he was gone.

;

Marcus ‘Markie’ Zucco had shit luck and always would.

He had been fourteen and just wanted his idiot uncle to leave his mom out of his illegal affairs. Mom was too nice to kick her big bro from the house and always stressed the importance of family to him. He might have took her lessons in the past and just dealt with his uncles but they left him to rot after he got caught in one of their drug smuggling schemes. He wasn’t a rat, he didn’t sell out his blood and make mom cry but he didn’t forgive either.

Imagine his surprise finding old Uncle Tony visiting him one fine Sunday afternoon instead of his mom and sister in their fine church attire. He sneered at his uncle but his uncle smiled back.

“Markie! Come give yer uncle a hug!”

He proclaimed but Markie stayed where he was at, glaring at him and sneering at his cellmates who gave him strange looks. He wasn’t going to show weakness for this man, he would always spare his mom and a sister a kiss and kick in any head of any idiot who said he couldn’t but he wasn’t doing it for this trash.

He sat heavily at the bench across from the man and continued to glare.

“Markie, I know ya told me straight up you would never do a favor for yer old uncle Tony again, but this is an emergency.”

“Get bent,” was all Markie replied as he felt the guards staring at him. He had a reputation after all.

“That’s my Markie, always telling the man to shove it,” he snickered but Markie saw the desperation there slowly being eaten by his anger problems. Markie wasn’t ten anymore and he didn’t have to worry for his loved ones safety now, if he threw a punch, Markie would happily return the gesture.

He slid a paper to his nephew and he stared at it with a frown. That circus, he had heard about it and he had connections even in here to inform him what his rat uncle as up to. He was a top suspect next to Haly on the Grayson’s deaths. Didn’t sit right with Markie, his uncle never had that much power in the past. He had only partly warned the Grayson boy about it because he hated his uncle and wanted the kid to drag him down into the hell he stuck Markie in. The other half just liked messing with tadpoles. He hated that it was just as bad as he made it out to be to Grayson.

It was a headline about the owner’s death, it was fairly graphic and Markie turned his head away not wanting to read more.

“Those men who did that,” he said pointing to the headline, “Are gonna do that to our family if we don’t give em what they want.”

Markie frowned not knowing if he should help or not but he loved his mom and sister and if it meant making sure freak jobs didn’t touch them, he would work with the man he hated most.

“What do ya want?”

He sighed defeated listening to his uncle asking him if he knew any corrupt guards, he did. He wanted one boy out and given to him, Markie wasn’t sure about even a corrupt guard doing that.

“A million bucks Markie, ya tell them I will give them a million bucks.”

“You don’t have that money.”

“I don’t, but the owls do Markie and they will reward you too if you play your role right.” 

Markie sighed loudly and reluctantly agreed.

“What do I get?”

“Anything, anything ya want.”

Markie thought a moment and shrugged.

“I want out of this hell hole and I want mom and sis out of this crime bullshit.”

His uncle’s eye was twitching, he wanted to hit him so bad and Markie knew him well enough to know that but he somehow kept his composer. The deal was made.


End file.
